


The Gift of the Blood Magi

by Mirabai0821



Series: O Death [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Dark Ritual, Dubious Consent, F/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, vague mention of racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:03:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5934430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirabai0821/pseuds/Mirabai0821
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted from Tumblr:</p><p>17. Things You Said I Wish You Hadn't</p><p>"It must be him," Morrigan said to her, hands clasped in supplication. "And it must be tonight."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gift of the Blood Magi

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is me making my first (ish) foray into the Origins side of fandom with my Female Warden Elissa 'Issa' Cousland and the Warden Prince of Cheeses Alistair Theirin.
> 
> I liked this enough to post it here and 'First and Only' will be my dumping ground for their stories. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Warnings: Dubious consent and racism ahead.

Morrigan finished her plea, concerned her dear friend’s face hadn’t registered any kind of emotion. No shock, or surprise, not even disgust. That concerned Morrigan, it meant she was being thoughtful. Issa Cousland led from the heart, reacted from the heart, that she seemed to be actively considering her offer with her _head_ did not bode as well as Morrigan thought it might. **  
**

“You waste my time Morrigan.” She answered at last, even toned and sanitized of any emotion. “Asking me that.”

“Issa–Elissa I need you to consider, I am talking about your life, both of your lives. If you care for Alistair as you seem to, you will convince him to. Consider, Issa, consider what the alternative might be. No one need die to an Archdemon on the morrow.”

“You are wasting my time.” Issa repeated, her heart now showing through the glare in her eyes. “I won’t let you touch him.”

Morrigan scoffed, throwing up her hands. “You think this is about that? _Jealousy_?”

Issa stood to her feet, scraping her chair against the floor upsetting the greatsword she’d been honing in her lap, stirring Dog from his fitful slumber and into an annoyed growl. Alistair was still locked in conversation with Eamon and Teagan, both men trying to talk some sense into him, convince him of his duties to Ferelden as it’s rightful king. But the Banns wouldn’t take a mudskin, not even a _Cousland_ mudskin for its queen so Alistair denied them. Didn’t want the damn job anyway too stressful despite the incidental perks like nearly unlimited power and fancy headgear.

First and Only he told her, turning his back on Anora and his birthright.

First and Only.

“How bloody stupid do you think I am Morrigan! The answer is no. Unequivocally no. And did you even think to ask him? Why did you come to me? You think I’m his keeper? No, you came to me because you knew he’d say no. We spent the better part of 2 years travelling together Morrigan, did you not listen to him in all that time? Hating how he was bastard, how they made him sleep in barn with the dogs, how he was alone. And you would ask him to inflict that same kind of pain on his _child_? Even beyond that, we’re talking blood magic, what part of _Alistair_ did you think would be complicit in blood magic?”

“Did you forget?!” Morrigan spat back. “What Riordan told you, how a life is the price for peace. A Warden’s life! Your high minded morals will get him killed Issa! One word from you, and he would be amenable. That’s all I need.”

Warden Cousland laughed without an ounce of warmth. “You really haven’t been paying attention. All this time together Morri, and you haven’t paid any attention at all. Because if you had you’d know two things. One, that Alistair would _never_ agree to such things, goes against his whole heart. And you’d be out of your _fucking mind_ to think I’d willingly try to convince him of something he didn’t want. And two: and this is important Morrigan so _pay attention_ this time. Two: if you knew anything about me, about your friend, then you’d know there is no way in Perdition that _I_ would allow him die. So you waste my time Morrigan, however much left of it I have left.”

Issa spared her hound a calming pat to the flat of his head, and the growl that had been bubbling in his throat softened to a sympathetic…pained whine. Dog lay down at his mistresses feet but kept his eyes on the witch as she made her way out.

“You are a fool. Your pride will kill you and you will break his heart. You are my friend, Issa, I would not have it end this way.”

Issa didn’t respond, resuming the slow draw of the whetstone across her blade unsatisfied until she was assured that it could cut the hide of an Archdemon.

**

“I should have never asked her! I should have come to you first.”

“Maker’s Breath. Be killed by the archdemon or sleep with you. How can you ask me to make that kind of choice? And what about Issa? You _really_ want me to…”

“YES! And you waste precious little time!”

“Morrigan, I can’t….I have to at least speak with her. Discuss it.”

“There is nothing to discuss. I already approached her with it, she denied me. Listen to me Alistair.”

Morrigan stopped her frustrated pacing to stand in front of her friend’s lover. She touched him with cold hands, turned his face to lock with her gaze. “Do you love her? Tell me true.”

“Morrigan…” Alistair sighed. “More than life.”

“And she has resolved to die for you tomorrow, should Riordan fail.”

He ground his teeth together as he spoke. “I will not let her!”

“No one _lets_ Issa Cousland do anything. She just _does._ This you well know.”

Alistair chuckled in spite of everything “I do.”

“So help me help you save both your lives. Besides, you will not hate this quite so much as you believe.”

**

He did. He felt like rot, filthy and loathsome, sitting on his bed in smalls while Morrigan hurriedly undressed. She was..

She was….

“You gawk, am I that hideous to your eyes?”

“No,” he said with heartbreaking honesty, “You’re just _different_. Morrigan I don’t want her to die. _I_ don’t want to die. But I told her, I told her that if I had my way, she’d be my first and my only, and yet here I am. I don’t deserve her.”

“Neither do I. Now lay back.”

**

She only stopped when tears made it hard to see the blade beneath her hands. She thought she was done with crying, thought she’d exhausted her capacity for tears, losing it all when Mama and Papa died. When Arl Howe choked to death with her boot on his neck.

Apparently there was still some weakness left in her. And he was a tall brunette man with kind eyes and a kinder heart that somehow managed to see something worthy of love within her. That heart was worth protecting, worth dying for.

She put her sword down, and went searching.

**

“Zevy, have you seen Alistair?”

“Last I saw the boy he was talking to Morrigan, but I have not seen him–”

The assassin didn’t get the chance to finish, Issa fled, running for Alistair’s room.

She burst through the door only to see Alistair alone, sitting quietly on his bed.

“Oh thank the Maker…I thought.”

Alistair lifted his head, face blotchy and red, tear stricken.

“Alistair what has…”

“Issa…I am so so sorry.”

He covered his shameful face with his hands and heaved a sob. Issa crossed the room, taking two strides in what should have been eight. She lifted his face from his hands, eyes searching. “What did she do to you, did she magic you? I will fucking tear her head from her body, Maker fucking take me I will!”

She searched his eyes for blood, for the telltale signs of lingering blood magic. She put her hands on him, searching for injury, finding him whole.

“I will kill her, throttle that bitch in her sleep for this!”

“Elissa stop.” He sobbed, heart breaking harder. “I agreed. She told me everything. That it will save us, the both of us, and I’ll get to marry you and spend the rest of my life with my First and…Most Important. So I agreed, _I agreed_. But I…part of me wishes….that I hadn’t.”

He flinched hard away from her, unable to stand her touch anymore. But Issa, she took him, lifted him from his sorrow and shame and into her arms.

And held.

And held. 


End file.
